Species Traitor: A Science Fiction Dystopian Novel by Kate Mary (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📗

you to death and love it, and I’m not going to lift a finger to stop them. Do you hear me? Not a finger.”

His grip tightened on my arm as he twisted it behind me, making me feel like my bones were on the verge of snapping.

“Johnson,” Brentwood called, “pull yourself together.”

Dean pushed me against the fence harder. “She’s only getting what she deserves.”

He was ripped away from me suddenly, and I stumbled and fell to my knees. My body and face were aching when I looked up, but what I saw shocked me even more than Dean’s sudden violent fury had. He was in Finn’s grasp, the Veilorian’s citrine eyes flashing with anger as his large fingers dug into the guard’s forearms. Dean’s feet had actually left the ground. I couldn’t believe it.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Finn growled.

Brentwood rushed forward, pulse rifle up and aimed at Finn’s head. “Drop him. Now.”

“No.” I scrambled to my feet, putting myself between the weapon and Finn, and forced my throbbing arms up as I tried to reason with Brentwood. “Stop. He was just trying to protect me.” I spun to face Finn, who was still holding Dean. “Let him go. I’m okay.”

Finn’s gaze moved to me, and he released Dean. The guard fell to the ground like a ragdoll but scrambled up only a second later. Like his coworkers, he raised his pulse rifle and aimed it at Finn.

“Stop,” I said, spinning to face the guards now. “Things are getting out of hand. We don’t want any bloodshed.”

“Speak for yourself,” Dean growled. “I wouldn’t mind seeing this halfling piece of shit bleeding on the ground.”

“Brentwood,” I chose to focus on the sympathetic guard, “he was just trying to protect me.”

Brentwood looked at me, conflict flashing in his eyes as he slowly lowered his pulse rifle.

“Dean,” I said, turning to the guy I’d broken up with only an hour earlier. “Please.”

He didn’t even glance my way. “That’s Lieutenant Johnson.”

“Dammit, Johnson.” Brentwood finally stepped in front of Dean. “That’s enough. If you want to file a complaint, you do it through the proper channels. Just know you’ll have to include everything that happened in the report. Understand?”

The warning was clear enough to make Dean falter.

“Ava.” Finn’s soft voice pulled my gaze to him. “Let’s just go.”

He had his hand out, urging me to take it, and without thinking, I slipped my hand into his.

We hadn’t even taken a step when Dean flipped his pulse rifle around and with no warning slammed the butt into Finn’s face. My hand slipped from his as he stumbled back, grunting in pain.

“Johnson!” Brentwood barked as I called out, “No!”

I hadn’t realized we’d drawn an audience until that moment. Dozens of Veilorians had stopped to watch the altercation, and the second Finn hit the ground, they moved in what felt like a wave of tall, lean bodies. Dozens of voices rang out at once, outraged and confused, calling to Finn to see if he was okay, asking me what was happening, yelling at Dean and Brentwood.

Through it all I heard Dean shouting, “Stay back! Just stay the fuck back!”

There was a crackle of static, and one of the guards yelled into a radio, “We need backup. We have a situation.”

I dropped to the ground in front of Finn, who was holding his face where Dean had slammed the pulse rifle into it.

“Let me see,” I said, prying his hand away.

There was a gash on his lip, and his cheek was smeared with blood. It was purple. Finn’s blood was purple.

It made sense—he was part human—but I hadn’t expected it, and it took a moment to recover from the shock. Once I had, I wiped the blood away to get a better look at him and was relieved to find only one small cut. Although his face and lip would no doubt be swollen and bruised. Assuming Veilorians bruised. I had no idea if they did.

“It doesn’t look bad,” I said.

“I’m fine.” Finn looked past me to where the guards stood, pulse rifles still raised. “We need to stop this before things get worse.”

He was right. Dean and the other guards weren’t aiming their weapons at anyone in particular but were instead panning their pulse rifles around like they were preparing to take out the entire crowd in a shower of energy pulses. Dean’s eyes were wide, angry and flashing, while Brentwood looked almost panicked.

I stood, reaching for Finn in case he needed help, and once we were both up, we turned to the Veilorians gathered around us.

“Everything’s okay,” Finn called. “Go home. We don’t want to give them an excuse.”

A Veilorian man close to us looked around, acting like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to back down or not, but after a second he nodded and left. Others followed, and the tension eased as the crowd dispersed. Dean and Brentwood, however, never let their guard down.

I grabbed Finn’s hand and took a step back. “We should go, too. I don’t know what they’ll do to you if we stick around.”

“Not like it matters.” Finn’s hard stare was focused on Dean. “Your boyfriend knows who I am.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said with more venom than I intended. “I broke up with him earlier, but even if I hadn’t, he definitely wouldn’t be after this.”

Finn gave a tense nod and turned his back to the fence, pulling me with him as he moved deeper into the District. I didn’t bother getting my chip scanned. I wouldn’t be leaving again.

Finn kept a firm grip on my hand as we wound our way up the nearest spiral staircase and over a few walkways, neither of us talking but both knowing where this walk would take us. Last night in his bed we’d held back. There had been so many reasons to at the time, but they all seemed stupid now. Pointless. I wanted him. Veilorian, halfling, or human, I didn’t care. I wanted this man, and I